ATLANTA -- The Republican Party can't force Fulton County to hire more of its handpicked election workers right before Election Day, according to a judge's ruling Friday.

Fulton Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer rejected the party's last-minute effort to install partisan poll workers for Tuesday's election.

The county hired 23 of 61 election workers submitted by the party, but a GOP attorney argued in court that the county should have been required to hire all the poll workers it requested.

"You apply for a job, send out 10 resumes (and) don't always get called back," Farmer said. "Some of your folks got hired. ... You got a fair percentage."

Kevin Kucharz, an attorney for the Republican Party, said state law compels Fulton Election Director Nadine Williams to hire the GOP's election workers.

"There is no purpose in letting parties submit lists unless there's an intent of the General Assembly to give those people proper consideration and priority," Kucharz said. "The statute exists to give political parties an inroad into the political system."

But Farmer said the law doesn't say political parties get priority in hiring. It only requires consideration and equal representation among political parties that submit names of potential poll workers.

The Democratic Party didn't submit a list of poll workers it wanted Fulton to hire.

"Please do not let these people throw a wrench into our elections process," Kaye Burwell, an attorney for Fulton County, asked the judge. "We're on the eve of Election Day."

Farmer said an evidentiary hearing is required to determine whether the county considered the Republican Party's proposed poll workers, and state law gives the county at least 10 days to respond.

The party's lawsuit can be considered in the coming weeks, but not on an emergency basis before Election Day, Farmer said.

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